The recording of an image sequence of the area surrounding a vehicle is known for driver assistance systems (see for example DE 10 2006 055 905 A1, DE 10 2008 022 064 A1), or else as a replacement for a rear-view mirror (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,567,291 B2).
In order to allow the image sequence to be recorded both during the daytime and at night with adequate quality, wide brightness ranges must be covered. For example, if an imaging sensor is used as a vehicle rear-view mirror, the brightness which is incident on it must be regulated. According to the prior art, this is done by electronic exposure time control in the digital camera. The time duration in which the image is recorded can therefore be considerably shorter when the surrounding area is bright than the cycle time for image transmission. Nevertheless, pulsed light sources which emit their light in the form of short light pulses must be identifiable in the recorded image sequence in order, for example, to also identify flashing LED lights of modern emergency vehicles, in addition to rotating warning lights on older emergency vehicles (for example the blue light on a police vehicle) as such in the image sequence.